The Chicago Bears have received plenty of praise for their work over the past two months upgrading the roster. GM Ryan Polesa and head coach Ben Johnson have assembled a roster loaded with promising young talent, particularly on offense. Among the group are four 1st round picks (Caleb Williams, Rome Odunze, Darnell Wright, and Colston Loveland) and three 2nd round picks (Cole Kmet, Luther Burden, and Ozzy Trapilo). Normally, when you build a unit that way, good things happen. Yet for some reason, much of the excitement centers around a little-known 7th round pick named Kyle Monangai.
That may seem odd. Late round picks almost never get much media coverage this early. Usually it takes until at least training camp for he buzz to start building. Monangai is a special case. For one, he arrived at a position many felt was a big need for the Bears (running back). On top of that, he was highly productive in one of college football’s best conferences. Former head coach Dave Wannstedt got the chance to watch Rutgers practices. He got the full picture of Monangai.
This led to a wild prediction on the Marquee Sports Network.
Kyle Monangai would make history if he pulls that off.
No 7th round pick since the draft moved to the current seven-round formula has managed to log any significant playing time on the opening day of their rookie season. Charles Leno Jr. came the closest in 2014. He started getting snaps in week ten of that season. As we know, he became a quality starting left tackle. Wannstedt is saying Kyle Monangai will do something this franchise hasn’t seen before. That is a bold prediction. Crazy? No. D’Andre Swift is sure to be a primary option. That means Monangai will compete with Roschon Johnson and Travis Homer for the other spot in the lineup. Nobody would call that the steepest competition. If he puts together a good camp and preseason, the path is there for him to pull it off.
Subscribe to the BFR Youtube channel and ride shotgun with Dave and Ficky as they break down Bears football like nobody else.
